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Nadal and Djokovic to clash in the Rome final

Nadal and Djokovic are going to face off of the 54th time of their incredible career!

19 May 2019

Rafale Nadal and Novak Djokovic are going to clash in the final in Rome after a rather eventful week.

Nadal beats Tsitsipas

Rafa was opposed to an in-form Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinal after the Greek beat him in the semifinal the previous week. The King of Clay this time wasn’t unprepared to play one of the best tennis of season and leave not many chances to his opponent. Rafa started in the best possible way after clinching a 3-0 start following 3 hard-fought games. Then the Greek managed to stay with him for the rest of the set, but he didn’t find the way to break him and the Spaniard won the opener 6-3.

The second set was similar as the difference was only 1 break that Rafa conquered in the 3rd game. Nadal impressed for dropping just 4 points on serve in this set before winning the contest 6-3 6-4.

Djokovic beats Schwartzman

The world no.1 had a much more difficult life against Diego Schwartzman in the other semifinal. After winning the first set 6-3, the Serbian sensation found himself battling in the following set. After trading 4 consecutive breaks (2-4 3-4 3-5 4-5), the pair went to the breaker that the Argentine won at 2 after conquering 6 consecutive points (from 1-2 to 7-2). In the decider, the only difference between Djokovic and Schwartzman was only 1 break in the 6th game that gave to Djokovic the decisive lead to win the match 6-3 6-7 (2) 6-3.

The final

This will be the 54^th time that Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic fight. The head to head is 28-25 for Djokovic (see full H2H stats), but Nadal has a winning record of 16-7 on clay.

The last time that they locked horns, Djokovic won 6-3 6-2 6-3 in the final in Melbourne back in January 2019.